Why do baseball players feel that injecting themselves with needles and pumping their bodies full of drugs will help their game out; how would such a supplement affect their bodies and what is the risk verses the reward? The reason I chose to write about the particular subject is because I play baseball. I feel that this essay affects my values because I come from a background that is based on the motto, "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard." I think taking steroids are not only cheating, but it is a complete waste of time. Sure steroids may help you hit a ball harder and look a lot bigger, but the end results could be bad. Steroids can shorten your life span and also keep you out of the Hall of Fame. I have never played with anybody abusing the substances that I know of, but I feel that one day I will. Writing about this subject makes me feel like I can get how I feel about the matter off of my chest. So my qualification comes from playing the sport and seeing how it affects everyday life and the athletes that are using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED'S) to better their play. 

In my first article "Steroids in Baseball: The History and the Use" it talks about a few of the greats that got busted for abusing steroids. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa. They were all players who made it big and abused steroids to set themselves apart in the process of getting to the Hall of Fame. The major evidence is that some of the players admitted to abusing the drugs and others lied about them to Courts. These athletes brought the game of baseball back into the public eye and reclaimed "America's Pastime" back to where it was. Now steroids are a big deal to everyone in the country and The World Series is one of the most watched sporting events in the world. This author's credibility is valid because it is over the facts and history of PED's.

In article two"Jucin' in the Majors" the central claim to me was funny because the picture when you open the page is of a baseball being injected with a bunch of needles. The article is about the history of steroids being used in baseball. It talks about how far back Performance Enhancing Drugs can be traced and the types of different drugs being used, the major values include the information stating all the facts about the drugs, and the interests that go along with PED's being abused in the game. The credibility of this article's author is he used to be an athlete and now does studies on the game of baseball.

In my last article "Baseball and Steroids: Whats the Big Deal?" the Doctor (Carise, Deni) who wrote it works with abusing athletes, and gets them back to playing without drugs after rehabilitation, in this case being the major evidence for the claims she has to make about using the prolific drugs. The major values she has are that using steroids is very wrong and she does not agree with it. She has claims in this subject because she deals firsthand with these athletes. The credibility of this author is that she is a doctor and she is a nationally recognized expert in substance abuse and behavioral health and Chief Clinical officer at Recovery Centers of America. She is also a biased source on this subject because she works with these athletes.

In my final thoughts about this essay my argument holds because only time will tell how long it takes for the world to get rid of Performance Enhancing Drugs. All of my sources talk about the history of this drug abuse and say that these drugs help athletes play but they have long term affects and abusing steroids is morally wrong. They do not believe that athletes should be allowed to take them. I agree with these articles because not only does the use of steroids shorten your time frame as an athlete, but the money of contracts just keeps going up each year and these players are getting paid to play a game. Why is it necessary to cheat at something that you are supposed to "play for the love of"? Is it all for the game? Or just for selfish motives about making it to the Hall of Fame?

